Google Airbrushed Environmental Impact In Search Flights Carbon Calculator, Experts Say

Google has made changes that affects the carbon calculator embedded in the company's Google Flights search tool.

The company removed a key identifier of global warming from its online carbon flight calculator, Google Flights, the BBC reported Thursday.

"Google has airbrushed a huge chunk of the aviation industry's climate impacts from its pages," according to the BBC, which cites Doug Parr, chief scientist at Greenpeace.

Google began tracking the impact of carbon emissions on the climate from airline flights in 2021, to help eco-conscious consumers make better decisions.

Google Flights shows users what the carbon emissions of their prospective trips will be, allowing a buyer to consider the environmental footprint for each route. It flags routes with higher or lower than typical emissions, and reports the total CO2 emitted per passenger on any given journey.

The BBC reported that Google said it made the change after consulting with industry partners. The changes affect the carbon calculator embedded in the company's Google Flights search tool.

The decision to remove the global warming impacts of flying -- except for CO2 -- was made in July 2022, but some experts tell the BBC the calculations now represent just more than half of the real impact on the climate of flights.

Flying in an airplane affects the climate in many ways other than the CO2 produced by burning aviation fuel. Some of the affects include the creation of long, thin clouds in the atmosphere - known as contrails that trap heat radiated by the Earth, leading to a net warming effect on our planet. Other contributors include droplets of ice, fuel particles, and water vapor left in the wake of the aircraft.

A study published in 2021 led by Manchester Metropolitan University estimated that around two-thirds of aviation's environmental impact comes from other pollutants.

Google posts its calculations and methodology  for the tool on a software website called GitHub.

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